Hey you sexy guys and gals! I was recently asked by the ultra-legendary Tara Denny to be part of a kickass idea – a blog hop!

What’s a blog hop, you ask? I talk about the artist who asked me to join this blog hop (Tara Denny), then I talk a bit about myself (who doesn’t love to do that), answer some questions and then link to 3 other artists, who’ll then do the same thing in a week’s time. Groovy!

Some of you may remember her from an interview I did a while back. But if you missed her the first time around, then prepare to have your world rocked:

TaraDennyImages.com
facebook.com/taradennyimages

Holy smokes, told you she was good.

So now let’s talk about me, yay! If you don’t know me, I’m Handy Andy Pandy, a ginger with a camera. The best way to get to know me is probably to look through my 365 Project, where I’m creating one conceptual image every single day!

1. Why do I do what I do?
Because it’s fun! I love photography, and I love Photoshop. I’ve never felt as passionate about anything in my life (other than my lovely girlfriend!) When I’m down, I’ll use Photography as a sort of catharsis. When I’m happy and joyful, I’ll express that through a photo.

I also love being part of the photography world, I love chatting to other photographers. I love the click of the shutter button and the beep of my flash. I love holding my Wacom pen in my hand as I work in Photoshop. I love every damn bit of it!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
My work features my beautiful face! Nobody else in the world can claim to shoot photos of my face. If they do make such claims, they’re lying :(

And I love to inject my own wacky sense of humour into my images, which I think sets me apart. My photos are very much “me”; I guess they’re a bit of a window into my life. I like being silly and fun, and I love taking silly and fun images. Quite a few conceptual photographers I follow create these amazingly emotional and gripping images, which blow my tiny little mind… But I think there’s a gap when it comes to silly and even stupid images. I aim to help fill that niche; I am the embodiment of the stupid and the silly.

3. How does my creative process work?
For about 1% of my images, I will just play around with my camera/photoshop and see what happens, just having fun with the process and experimenting like a little kid. I find these the most fun to do :)

As for the other 99%, I always come up with an idea and have the whole image planned out in my head before I click the shutter, including knowing what post-processing I’m planning on doing. As to how I come up with ideas, sometimes (well, rarely…) they just come to me. But 99 times out of 100 I have to brainstorm for 30min+ (sometimes hours), and then spend time working hard to really flesh out the idea. I’d love to be one of those people who has ideas come to them in dreams, but sadly I have to work really really hard at it :(

4. What am I working on now?
A 365 Project! Well, I’m close to finishing the darn thing. Haven’t missed a single day, and I feel like I’ve really pushed myself every day, which is probably one of the biggest achievements in my life. I was never the most disciplined person in the world, so the fact I’ve done this 365 without skipping a day feels surreal and really hard to believe…

In the future I want to stop doing self-portraits quite so much and work with models, which will be challenging and awesome ^_^

That was fun! But this isn’t all just about me, so let’s check at 3 of my favourite photographers!

Robert Cornelius

Robert’s an absolute God at Photoshop, creating titillatingly-beautiful images that never cease to blow my mind. His style is incredibly cinematic and it’s pretty apparent he puts a hell of a lot of love into every one of his creations!

On top of that, he’s a very humble guy and lots of fun to talk to. He’s getting married a few days after this post goes up, – shoot the lad a tweet and say congrats!

Sarah Allegra

Sarah’s artwork is equal parts beautiful, dramatic, theatrical, stunning and poignant – she’s never made a single image where I haven’t sat there in silence, mouth open.

She’s a total genius and a really lovely person to boot!

Angela Butler

Angela is not only one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, she’s also one of the most generous and encouraging! From the moment we first became photography buddies, Angela’s pushed me to get better and better and to try different photos :D

As for her own photography, she has such incredibly style (pizazz?), but also isn’t afraid to tackle some in-your-face stuff – check out this shot from a series she did with her friend Miguel Suarez!